“I feel pretty good. It could have been worse, a lot worse. I felt my leg go in the other direction, so I felt something was wrong right away. I was just glad that it wasn’t worse. I was in here and they took a look at it right away, and the things that worried me the most, they were pretty stable right away. So that kind of got my hopes up a little bit more. Then the MRI showed there was nothing wrong with my ACL, so I’m happy.”–Jonathan Ericsson

We won’t really know how long the Big Rig will be out until the swelling in his leg goes down a bit. So while we wait, let’s see what Ericsson had to say about his assailant, Shane Doan…

“It was a clean hit, it’s just he hit my leg first and just hit the inside of my knee. That was where the big impact was. I don’t feel it was a dirty hit at all.”

I suppose I agree with that, even though Ericsson doesn’t do a very good job of explaining it. Unlike the Laraque hit on Kronwall, Doan did appear to lead with his shoulder…it was just an awkward collision. Doan is a classy guy too, from what I can tell. Apparently, Doan went to a trainer to see how Ericsson was doing, and expressed his sympathies for the result of their encounter.

“I appreciate those kinds of things. Even though it wasn’t a dirty hit, he was still worried. I kind of respect him more as a player right now — he’s concerned about me after what happened, and it’s nice.”

Very nice. But you should still line him up next time you play against the ‘Yotes. Hell, I might just gripe about it being a dirty hit when I’m at the game in Glendale. I don’t have credentials. No access coming my way. What have I got to lose?